It is easy getting caught up in the everyday hustle and bustle of your real estate business. Unexpected tasks always seem to pop up at the worst possible times. Before you know it you spend all day trying to accomplish one single item. This is a way of life for many investors. Instead of focusing on the big picture you focus only on the next task in front of you. Doing this may help close the deal you are working on or finish your current rehab project but what happens after that? Without a steady stream of deals in your pipeline you are forced to start the process all over again. Accomplishing short term tasks is great but you always need to keep the big picture in mind. Here are five things you can do that will help in this area.
- Network. Most everyone in the real estate business understands the importance of networking yet not everyone does it. Networking is something that you need to stay on top of regardless of what else you have going on. There are times when you may be in a good stretch and don’t feel that you need to grow your business. The reality is that things can change on a dime in the real estate world. Those three deals that you thought you had could fall on in an instant. If they do are there other deals in place to back those up? Even if they don’t fall out hopefully they will eventually close. You need to take constant steps to build your business. You may not want to go to a networking meeting after a long day but an hour or two can have a huge impact on your long term business health.
- Avoid Knee Jerk Reactions. At your networking meetings or in the course of your everyday travels you will hear plenty of opinions on how you should run your business. Some of the voices you hear will be quite powerful. Regardless of how compelling the situation or how strong a prospective deal sounds you need to avoid knee jerk reactions. One overreaction can cause you to be part of a deal that you don’t really want. This will divert your attention in the short term away from other, more profitable opportunities. Hopefully you can get in and out of these without too much damage. The worst case scenario is that you actually lose money on something you never really had conviction for in the first place. If you are in the business long enough you will hear dozens, even hundreds, of deals and scenarios. Some of them may turn out great while others will ruin your business. Before you commit to anything in your business you need to spend some time performing your own independent due diligence.
- Invest In Areas You Enjoy. It is important to never follow the money in real estate. One of the things that makes the real estate business so great is that there are many different ways to be successful. You don’t need to invest the way everyone else in your area is. You need to find a niche that you truly enjoy pursuing every day. If not you will get tired of the business quickly and eventually not work as hard to find deals. Conversely, by following a niche you are passionate about more deals will come your way. The people around you will feed off your excitement and are more inclined to work with you. Every day you wake up you will hit the ground running instead of dreading the types of deals you are pursuing. Your niche can be anything from tax liens to note investing. The people around you may try to talk you out of it but as long as you enjoy it you will stay in the business as long as you like.
- Constantly Look For Efficiency. The way you are running your business and finding deals may be great now but is there a better way to do it? Even if you are having success there may be a more efficient way to run things. Technology has made the real estate business as easy as ever to run. You need to embrace these changes and not be so stuck in your ways. Investors that are resistant to change usually get left behind. Even if you spend months developing a system you can’t be as stubborn as to think this is the only way to do things. The real estate business is constantly changing. It is critical that you change along with it.
- Keep Moving Forward. Take a look at where you were in your life five years ago. The odds are that much of what you think and do may be completely different. Regardless of what happens in your everyday business you need to keep moving forward. Often times this means embracing your mistakes and not becoming paralyzed by them. Mistakes happen to all investors. Some of these will be bigger than others but all of them should act as a learning experience. There are many investors who give up at the first obstacle they face. You need to fight through these and think of where you want to be three, six and even twelve months down the road. There will be plenty of adversity throughout your career but you need to constantly keep moving forward.
The best investors balance what they need to do today with where they want to be tomorrow. This is not always easy at times but essential for long term success.
